Georgia correctional officer salaries by employer, 2025
4,260 people worked as correctional officers for Georgia Department of Corrections and Fulton County in 2025 (the fiscal year from July 2024 for the Department of Corrections, the calendar year for Fulton County). Those who worked the full year earned an average of $62,570, overtime included. More Georgia employers follow as we collect their pay data.
What is the average correctional officer salary in Georgia?
- Correctional officers
- 4,260
- 2,397 of them worked the full year
- Employers
- 2
- with 5 or more officers
- Median total pay
- $59,280
- the middle correctional officer: half earned more, half less
- Overtime
- In total pay
- Georgia's file doesn't list it separately
What stands out in Georgia correctional officer pay
The state's prisons employ 96% of the officers counted here.
4,071 of the 4,260 officers worked for the Georgia Department of Corrections, which counts as one employer: the file doesn't say which prison each officer works in. Full-year officers there averaged $62,063 in total pay.1
Officers in the department's CSM titles earn more.
The Department of Corrections uses two sets of officer titles. Full-year CSM Correctional Officers 3 averaged $73,986, Correctional Officers 3 $62,411. The file doesn't explain the CSM label.1
Fulton County's jail officers average $73,637, $13,975 of it overtime.
Full-year Detention Officers at the Fulton County Sheriff's Office had an average base pay of $54,750. The county's pay range for the title runs from $48,093 to $89,453.2
Sergeants average $73,136, $10,566 more than officers.
Full-year sergeants averaged $73,136 and lieutenants averaged $84,541, across the state's prisons and Fulton County's jail. Those ranks are kept out of the officer figures on this page.1,2
How reliable are the Georgia correctional officer figures?
Pay here is total pay.
Open Georgia's file has one pay figure per person: everything the employer paid them in the year, so supplements and any overtime are in it and base pay can't be shown on its own. Fulton County's payroll does split base pay and overtime, on its own page.1
Who worked the full year is our best estimate.
The file has no hours or start dates. We count someone as full-year when the same employer also paid them the year before, they were paid at least 90% as much, and at least a full year at the federal minimum wage. Two people with the same name at one employer can't be told apart, so neither counts.1
The state's file isn't audited.
The Department of Audits and Accounts compiles the file from what each employer reports and says it has not audited or reviewed it.1
There are no official pay ranges in the state file.
It lists each person's title and pay, not the employer's pay scale, so these pages show what officers were paid, not what a job can pay. Fulton County publishes ranges, shown on its page.
Titles were sorted by hand.
The Department of Corrections uses two sets of officer titles, plain and marked CSM; both count, and the employer page shows each title on its own.
Georgia correctional officer pay by rank: officer, sergeant, lieutenant and captain
The Georgia Department of Corrections and the Fulton County jail, 2025 (the fiscal year from July 2024 for the Department of Corrections, the calendar year for Fulton County). Fulton County's page has its own ranges by rank. Pay: full-year staff, overtime included.1,2
| Rank | Positions | Average total pay |
|---|---|---|
| Officers | 4,260 | $62,570 |
| Sergeants | 578 | $73,136 |
| Lieutenants | 329 | $84,541 |
| Captains | 5 | Fewer than 5 |
Which Georgia jobs count as correctional officers here, and which don't?
These figures cover the Georgia Department of Corrections, from Open Georgia's state payroll file, and the Fulton County Sheriff's Office jail, from Fulton County's payroll. We decided each title by hand.
Counted
- Correctional Officers 1, 2 and 3 at the Department of Corrections. Both of the department's officer title families: the plain titles and the titles marked CSM, which pay more. The file doesn't say which prison an officer works in, so the department counts as one employer.
- Detention Officers at the Fulton County Sheriff's Office. The county's jail officers.
Shown separately or left out
- Sergeants, lieutenants and captains. In the pay by rank table above, not in the officer figures.
- Transfer officers, correctional technicians, wardens and other prison staff.
- Deputy sheriffs and juvenile correctional officers. Deputy sheriffs are a job of their own; the Department of Juvenile Justice's officers work in youth facilities.
- Other Georgia county jails. Not covered yet.
Questions about correctional officer pay in Georgia
How much do correctional officers make in Georgia?
Full-year correctional officers at the Georgia Department of Corrections and the Fulton County jail earned an average of $62,570 in total pay in 2025. The middle officer earned $59,280: half earned more, half less.
How much does a Georgia Department of Corrections officer make?
Full-year officers at the Georgia Department of Corrections averaged $62,063 in total pay in the fiscal year from July 2024 to June 2025. 4,071 people held a correctional officer title there during the year.
How much do Fulton County detention officers make?
Full-year Detention Officers at the Fulton County Sheriff's Office averaged $73,637 in 2025, overtime included. The county's pay range for the title starts at $48,093.
How much do correctional sergeants and lieutenants make in Georgia?
Full-year sergeants averaged $73,136 and lieutenants averaged $84,541 in 2025, against $62,570 for officers.
Sources for the Georgia correctional officer figures
Every person who held a correctional officer position at any point in 2025 (the fiscal year from July 2024 for the Department of Corrections, the calendar year for Fulton County) counts toward the headcount. The Department of Corrections: pay figures use only people the same employer also paid in fiscal 2024 who were paid at least 90% as much in fiscal 2025, and at least a full year at the federal minimum wage. Open Georgia's file has no hours or start dates, so this is the closest sign of a full year. The Department of Audits and Accounts compiles the file and says it has not audited or reviewed it. Fulton County: pay figures use only people who were hired before 2025, were on the county's payroll in 2024 too, were still employed at the end of 2025 and whose base pay reached at least 90% of the bottom of their pay range. Total pay is gross wages before tax, including overtime, lump sums and other pay. Every figure covers at least 5 people.
- Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, Open Georgia, salaries and travel, fiscal years 2024 and 2025: title and total pay of every school district and state agency employee, July 2024 to June 2025, and the year before to see who worked the full year.
- Fulton County Government (GA), Payroll Public Dataset, Share Fulton (CC BY 4.0): title, pay range, base, overtime and total pay and hire date of every Fulton County employee in 2025, and in 2024 to see who was already employed.